The Architect Read Free Page A

China and Tibet. He lunched with swamis and drank tea with Taoist sages, studying under no less than one-hundred different masters. He became adept at the art of snake charming, an expert in Unani medicine and entered a secret society of adepts where he studied the anatomy of the soul.
    Upon returning to the west, he set himself vigorously to the task of writing articles and books, systemising the entire universe, both physical and spiritual, drawing from every science, culture and religion, contributing to numerous periodicals, including Neue Welt , Die Gnosis and Die Sphinx. He did phrenologic investigations of select individuals and espoused theories of cerebral inheritance. Attracting the attention of many wealthy patrons, most notably Franz Salvator, Archduke of Austria-Tuscany, he was soon provided with an annual stipend which allowed him to continue his studies with more leisure.
    The consummation of his spirituality seems to have occurred on April 3rd, 1894, when, at the age of forty-two, he was sitting on the last wooden bench on platform number 3 of the Lehrter Bahnhof in Berlin. He had eaten a plate of roast beef an hour earlier. It was around 6:30 pm. Over the next twenty minutes he became spontaneously enlightened and understood the workings of the entire universe, from its creation to its future destruction and saw both the purpose of mankind and the purpose of life, the celestial scheme of things.
    On March 5th, 1896, he declared that he would form a Universal Brotherhood of Mankind and, indeed, spent the rest of his days attempting to establish the new supramental consciousness on earth.
    Unequivocally inspired, he lectured all over Europe, but found particularly strong welcome in the intellectual circles of Switzerland, Austria and Italy, where he addressed some of the largest audiences ever gathered to hear one man’s thoughts on the religious meaning of life. In the year 1903 alone he was said to have given 291 lectures. He spoke on a vast variety of subjects, ranging from music to gardening, from Greek mythology to alphabetic dance. Occasionally during his discourses, he was known to slip into glossolalia, which he would afterwards apologize for.
     
    • He entered into ecstatic trances in which his astral body visited other planets and planes, met with other beings, familiars and archangels, the souls of great thinkers. He reported on the states of hell and transcribed the teachings of various celestial attendants.
     
    • He lived with a circle of close disciples from whom he demanded absolute obedience.
     
    • He was said to have read the Bible, from beginning to end, once a year throughout his life.
     
    • Certain journalistic organs accused him of charlatanism, pointing to the fact that he was in the habit of profusely adorning his fingers with costly rings and was known to supply his table with the most expensive wines and delicacies. These accusations he categorically refuted in his pamphlet Why Gold is God Too .
     
    • In 1899, England’s Society for Psychical Research (SPR), dispatched Dr. Richard Gibson to investigate the Society. Not only did this latter pronounce Körn to be absolutely innocent of fraud, but later went on to become one of his foremost disciples and was largely responsible for the introduction of Körn’s work to the English speaking world, establishing centres in both London and Edinburgh.
     
    • The last years of his life he spent largely in seclusion, translating the Akashic Records and often spending weeks at a time in self-imposed silence. Though this work was left unfinished, it was published in sixty-three volumes (Buchverlag der Taweret, Frankfurt 1924).

III.
     
    It was a mellow and humid day in spring, atmosphere thick, sky smeared with a white froth of clouds. Peter, after making many inquiries, had managed to find the address of Nachtman. A small, mountain village with cobbled streets which was bordered by cows on green slopes, sheep masticating